Dr. Rajiv Shah is president of The Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a mission to promote the well-being of humanity around the world. Shah will discuss his new book, "Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens" (Simon & Schuster, 2023), and how universities can embrace a big bets mindset of transformative change, especially as it relates to solving the climate crisis.

About the book:
Characterized as "a playbook for transformational change," Shah narrates stories from his own career, the 110-year history of the Rockefeller Foundation, and leaders as well as unsung heroes around the world to demonstrate it is realistic to be optimistic about our capacity to make large-scale change.

About Dr. Shah:
Dr. Shah serves as president of The Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a mission to promote the well-being of humanity around the world. The Foundation applies data, science, and innovation to improve health for women and children, create nutritious and sustainable food systems, end energy poverty for more than a billion people worldwide, and enable meaningful economic mobility in the United States and around the world.

In 2009, he was appointed USAID Administrator by President Obama, reshaping the $20 billion agency’s operations in more than 70 countries around the world by elevating the role of innovation, creating high-impact public-private partnerships, and focusing U.S. investments to deliver stronger results. Previously, he served at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he created the International Financing Facility for Immunization which helped reshape the global vaccine industry and save millions of lives.